When the Morning Sun Touches the Sky
by Gilly Gamgee
Summary: Thousands of years ago, a brave fellowship of ten set out to destroy the evil ruling ring, now the tenth member that died a heroic death is back in the body of a 14-year-old dancer, and it is her purpouse to save the Elves from sure death...
1. Chapter 1

When the Morning Sun Touches the Sky  
  
By Gilly Gamgee  
  
(*AUTHORS NOTE: OK..WELL, I WANT TO SAY FIRST THAT I BASED MANY OF THE CHARACTERS FROM PEOPLE IN MY OWN LIFE SO IF ANYONE THINKS THAT I HAVE OFFENDED THEM IN ANY WAY [AND TRUST ME, IF YOU READ THIS YOU WILL KNOW ITS ME AND THAT I AM TALKING ABOUT YOU, I'VE CHANGED MOST OF YOUR NAMES TOO FOR YOUR PRIVACY, OH AND FOR SOME PEOPLE I HAVE CHANGED THEM TO NAMES YOU LIKE BETTER THAN YOUR OWN.UM, FLO] PLEASE CONTACT ME..YOU KNOW HOW. SECOND, PLEASE REVIEW MY STORY, I DON'T MIND CONDUCTIVE CRITICISM, NO DO I SAY NO TO A GOOD REVIEW. OH AND, I MIGHT WANT TO SAY THAT IF YOU ARE READING THIS I WOULD RECOMMEND THAT YOU HAVE READ THE BOOKS BECAUSE MANY OF THE THINGS I REFER TO HAPPENED IN THE BOOKS NOT THE MOVIES, OR THEY MIGHT HAPPEN IN ROTK, BUT I DON'T KNOW IF THEY WILL YET, OBVIOUSLY, SINCE NONE OF US DO. ANYWAY, ENJOY!)  
  
CHAPTER 1  
  
Christine jumped down the last three creaky steps of her old screen porch, taking a deep breath of the sweet, fresh August air. Summer was by far her favorite season and she was determined not to miss a minute of this precious three-month break if she could help it. And since she had three hours left until she had to go to the sweltering heat of her dance camp, she was determined to make the best of the cool breeze blowing off the huge lake Superior. The wisps of cool wind slipped though the trees in the forests of northern Minnesota and suddenly would find Christine's face and play their way across her cheeks, soothing her.  
  
Christine stepped into the damp shade of the thick forest surrounding her house, feeling happy to be out of the hot August sun. She walked quickly though the familiar trees, stepping lightly because of her bare feet. If she could help it, Christine never wore shoes, she found them an annoying hassle. But even though the soles of her feet where rather hardened compared to many of her friends (she was able to easily run down a rocky dirt road without shoes, while her friends winced and stepped on just their toes, cringing and yelling for her to slow down) her feet where not able to repel the sharp points of a rake that she accidentally stepped on last summer.now three small scars rested on the heel of her left foot. They where a light red and almost invisible before the inlaid dirt in her foot, nothing compared to the deep red scar in the exact center of her back, like a place where a thick sword had cut into her spine. But Christine had never been though any such thing in her life; she would sure have been dead now. Her mother always claimed it to be a birthmark, but Christine had a horrible time believing that; and how could she have long, kind of thin birthmark in the center of her back, and also two odd birthmarks around the upper part of her wrists as well. Her friends had always claimed that the ones around her wrists where proof she was truly an alien from outer space, and it was only a matter of time before her true parents came home to claim her. But how ever she had gotten the odd marks, Christine blamed the one on her back for her horrible back pains and the ones on her wrists for her extremely sensitive wrists.  
  
The moss on the many roots of the trees was soft on Christine's toes, and as she crossed the shore of the river, squishy mud seeped through her toes, tickling her. Choosing an exceptionally thick log to walk across the low but swift river, she stepped gingerly on it, testing whether or not it could hold her weight. It could hold her weight well, and with a balance and swiftness that could only come from dancing for so long, she was cross the river. A few more long strides and she was to the old stone fence that used the pen cows in, but either all the cows had died or the farmer had simply given up, but the pasture had long ago been deserted and now a forest stood instead. Christine's long legs quickly took her over the low stones and to the other side, where an older and more moss-infested forest stood. Christine no longer cared for the condition of her feet, except for the occasional pokey plant, there was nothing here that would make her feet bleed, and that was all that worried Christine: if she started bleeding, she would have to go back to the house for a Band-Aid, the very sight of blood sickened her.  
  
After another few minutes of wandering though the dense forest, Christine found what she had been absent-mindedly looking for: her spot. It was the place she always found herself wandering to. A simple place where Christine was away from almost everything and was allowed to simply think. A heap of old, moss and lichen covered rocks that lay under a huge birch tree that seemed to have stood there in that same spot for ages and ages. It was so tall that Christine could see it from the window of the loft of her house, towering above all the other trees, far away.  
  
She took her place at the foot of the tree, on some of the rocks that had been so covered in moss that you could not even tell they where rocks, it was like laying on a rather lumpy feather bed. Folding her legs and leaning against the rough bark of the tree, Christine thought that life couldn't get more perfect then it was right now: she was 14-years-old, lived in a beautiful place, it was summer so there was no school, and she was away from everything.just how she liked it. She lay there lazily for a few minutes, watching the particles of dust and bits of leaves float and dance through the air, through the rays of sunlight that penetrated through the thick canopy of the forest, until she was bored, then she took out the small book she had in her sweatshirt pocket. She opened to the page she had book marked in "The Hobbit" and started re-reading the book for probably the 25th time in the last year. She had gone from the part where Gollum and Bilbo had fought for the Hobbit's life in the tunnels of the goblins, to where Bilbo had saved the Dwarves from the giant spiders in Mirkwood when she glanced at her watch and saw that she had ten minutes to leave for her dance class.  
  
Christine pocketed the book again and set off at a run back towards her house, no longer caring how much she hurt her feet, and vaguely thinking she could hear her dad's voice calling her name in the distance. She sped up as she crossed the old fence in a single leap. * * * "Are you certain of this?" The lady Galadriel stared at the messenger before her, trying to keep her face straight, but knowing well that her surprise and fear was showing through her majestically blue eyes.  
  
"Yes, my lady. Absolutely positive." The messenger said. He was no better at hiding his fear than she, his hazel eyes where full of the terror she felt welling up inside herself. But she forced it back down. Now was not the time to panic, that would only make the situation worse.  
  
She took a deep, slow breath, calming herself "So be it then. We will contact the one's living in the Changed World, and they will find the girl. She must be here as quickly as possible.we can not afford to waste anytime. This is too urgent." The messenger nodded and ran out of the hall as Galadriel fell into a chair behind her. She had never expected that the time would be so soon. She of course knew it would come, but not yet. And now that it had come, there was no time to waste, they had to find the body of the girl, and she had to remember. That was critical. But what if all the people that where needed did not know each other, or who each other where? No. She would not allow herself to think of such a case. She had no time for it now; she needed to think quickly. And anyway, it was said that she would have at least meet, or would meet the other people soon, they would not have that much difficulty finding her.most likely. No she must not think of that, she had to make her plan and quickly.  
  
But as she concentrated at keeping her mind straight and thinking, one though kept on squirming its way back into her mind, what if they didn't know each other? And what would be the cost for her people if that happened? * * * Jamie let her body flow with the music of the dance.let her mind relax and move into the memorized steps as she always did. ATTITUDE!! Her mind screeched at her. The difference between a dancer and a Dancer was how well you where able to use your body and to what extent. It was one of Jamie's talents.  
  
As she began to really use her body, she felt beads of sweat start to roll down her cheeks from the corners of her forehead and more droplets under her eyes. But she would wait to wipe them away till after the dance.no point in distracting herself now, and anyway, there where no boys around, so there was no point in making a fashion statement. As a pause in the song came, Jamie stole a glance in the mirror before her and the other girls on the Jr. line. All the girls on her right side looked like they where in pain, they where not smiling, they where all behind a note in their steps and they where all watching her. And, Jamie noticed with annoyance, none of them where using attitude! They had just had a conversation about what it took to be on the Jr. line and they all had agreed using your body and attitude was the key to dancing right. But why where they not using what they had?! One or two of the girls had said they where concentrating too hard still on getting the steps right to use attitude yet, and she was ok with that.it was their first year on the line and they moved fast, but the other girls had no excuse. They where barely breaking a sweat! But she wouldn't badger them till closer to competitions, heck it was only August.  
  
Another pause in the song, she looked in the other direction. Most of the girls looked exactly the same, one using some attitude, but most just the same pitiful dancing as the other side. Except for one. The girl next to her in the front row that Jamie had not really noticed until now. She was about half a head taller than Jamie (but of course that was not a huge accomplishment), with longish blonde-brown hair that was tied up in a messy half-bun, and wow: she was good. She was using every thing in her in the dance, and she hit the notes perfectly, just like Jamie herself. Her arms where perfectly straight (Jamie couldn't say the same for the other people on the line) and she could almost feel the energy coming out of her hands. It was the first time she had really noticed the girl, as it was her first year on the line, and Jamie wondered why she had not come a year, to two before! She was most certainly good enough. What was her name again? Jamie asked herself Katlin? Catherine? She couldn't remember, but she made a mental note to ask her after class.  
  
But then, all to suddenly, the dance was over and Jamie found herself in her last pose, wondering how she had gotten there: she had no memory of the last half of the dance at least.  
  
"Good, girls." The teacher said, turning off the music "Go get some water and take a 5-minute break."  
  
Jamie stood up from her kneeling position and wiped the sweat from under and around her nose with the shirt she wore over her leotard, then turned towards the back of the room where her water bottle was. After pouring the soothing ice water down her throat and relieving the rest of the sweat from her face with a Blues Clues towel, she looked around the room at the other girls. Some practiced the steps they where having trouble with, others lay on the cold tiles of the floor, and others where sitting drinking their water in gulps at a time. Jamie soon spotted the girl who had been dancing near her, showing three of the girls from her class the year before how to do a step that they did not know how to do quite right. Jamie sat down on a mat and waited patiently, drinking her water and thinking. There was something oddly familiar about that girl, the way she moved.the sound of her voice.just something about her. Something that Jamie could simply not place.  
  
THEN SHE WAS DONE TEACHING THE GIRLS WHAT EVER THEY HAD WANTED TO KNOW, AND SHE WALKED OVER TO WHERE JAMIE SAT, GRABBING HER OWN WATER BOTTLE AND SITTING DOWN ON THE FLOOR, THIRSTILY DRINKING THE WATER DOWN. JAMIE LET HER FINISH HER WATER, AND WIPE THE SWEAT OFF HER FACE WITH HER HAND THEN ONTO HER BLACK SHORTS. WHEN SHE LOOKED LIKE SHE WAS DONE DRINKING AND WAS STARING AT THE FAR WALL OF THE STUDIO, JAMIE SPOKE UP.  
  
"Good job." She said, not finding any other conversation starters.  
  
The other girl turned to her, her eyes full of mild surprise that Jamie was talking to her. "Oh. Thanks." She smiled. When she smiled, Jamie felt herself drawn to the girls eyes: a blue-green color that was not quite hazel with a dark blue edge. Then Jamie knew for sure that she had seen this girl some where.but she could not place where. Those eyes where unforgettable. It was a feeling that Jamie had felt before: the feeling that Jamie knew the person, but simply could not place them. It happened very rarely that she would meet one of these people, but when she did, she found she could relate to them very well, about almost everything. She had her ideas as to why these people seemed so familiar to her, but she had her guesses. And when ever she began to really think about them, she would start getting scared and call herself a moron.  
  
Jamie was so deep into her thoughts that she had forgot she had started a conversation. "You're a really good dancer too." The girl said. Wow, Jamie thought even her voice is familiar. I wish I could place from where through.  
  
"Thanks." Jamie found her voice after her surprise. "Why weren't you on the line last year, your so good?"  
  
"My friend was going to join a different class, and I wanted to be with her, but she backed out at the last minute and it was too late to move so I was stuck a class back." The girl explained. "Oh, I'm Christine by the way."  
  
Christine! That was it! "I'm Jamie." She returned the smile. "Yea, I knew that." Christine smiled. "We where in the same class a few years ago, do you remember, technique/lyrical? You where way better than me, so I didn't really expect you to." She had obviously read Jamie's confused face. For a moment Jamie thought that might have been where she had seen the girl before, but no, she was sure it was something else. Someone did not forget those eyes easily. This was something deeper. Christine paused, then suddenly, she stretched out her back, her face crunched up in pain, whispering "Oww." "Sorry," she said when she had stretched her back out well "I have horrible back pains."  
  
"What grade are you going into again?" Jamie asked surprised.  
  
"9th. Why?"  
  
"Aren't you just a little young to be getting back pains?" Jamie asked, surprised.  
  
Christine shrugged "Probably. But I can't really do much about them though, can I? I think they might be because-" but Jamie never got to hear why where Christine thought she got her back pains: at that moment, the teacher came back in the room and said it was time to dance again. Jamie screwed the lid of her water bottle back on and got up to let her body flow into the dance again. * * * August was drawing to an end and Tom knew that meant only one thing for him: it was almost time for him to start getting ready for the new school year. Mr. Nelson was the 9th grade science teacher at Two Harbors High School, in the small town of Two Harbors, far up in the cold northern Minnesota on the shores of huge, majestic Lake Superior. He would have to go into his room soon to put up all the posters again before the first day of school and get his lesson plans ready again. He always found it hard to go back to the school after the long summer break, and he could remember how depressing it had been when he was a kid to go back to school every September, even every morning when he had to go back from a night at home. He felt for the students, but what could he do?  
  
He yawned and swung back from his knees to the balls of his feet, vainly trying to rub the sleepiness out of this eyes. It was about high time for him to sleep, but he forced himself to stay away a few minutes more: he had to find it. Tom shook his head vigorously, then looked around his basement one last time. Boxes of random things lay spread around him, all having been thoroughly searched for the past two and half hours. None of them had what he was looking for inside them. Tom moved towards one box that he though he might not have looked in yet, but only to open the lid and see the same old collage books he had seen 5 times already that night. But I may have missed it the other five times I looked before. he thought hopefully, rummaging though the books quickly It was quite small.  
  
But then, quite suddenly, all the light was gone. The old light bulb must have finally hit its stride, about time to, he couldn't help but think, it must have been at least 6 years before he had changed it last. Tom swore but thanked the gods at the same time: he took it as a sign. It was time for him to go to sleep. He could have lumbered around and found a flashlight in about 10 minutes, but that very well could end up in injury to his head. And since he was going bald, it would be quite obvious if he had a big black and blue mark in the cent of his head from running into the wall. So instead, he set off towards the direction he knew the stairs where in on his knees, one hand stretched out in front of him to catch himself if he where to fall or run into a box that blocked his way. Somehow he managed to make his way though the cluttered basement and up the steep stairs, and in to the kitchen, where he quickly found the light switch. The snoopy clock above the back door told him that it was 1:13 A.M, much later than he though it had been, and much later than he had told himself he would stay up that night. Small wonder he was so tired. After drinking a glass of water, he turned off the light and made his way though the house, lit by the pale light of the full seeping thought the window shades and reflecting from any shiny surface.  
  
When he moved into his room, he fell into his bed with his clothes on, falling asleep before he hit the pillow, his last though: I am getting far to old for this in this lifetime. * * * Where am I? Christine asked herself. Her head throbbed so painfully that she felt she would pass out. Her wrists and ankles where bound so tightly that she felt she would have permanent scars. Every muscle in her body ached and moaned and groaned at the idea of even opening her eyes. And her right side hurt so bad. It was as if she had been stabbed then before it could properly heal, she had whipped constantly for days. Everything was cold and still around her, and Christine was dimly aware that there where many fires in a wide circle around where she lay, far off almost in the distance and near her, and that many man-like creatures moved around her. She was perfectly happy to go back to the sleep she knew she had just been in, but at that moment someone kicked her sharply on her side that hurt so much. She cried out in pain and cringed into a tight ball around herself, holding her side tightly.  
  
"Shut up, girl." An evil voice said above her. A terribly hairy hand grabbed her hair and pulled her to a sitting position. "Now, eat." The creature flung some stale bread and meat at her. An instinct told Christine not to touch the meat or the bread and so she lay back down slowly, not daring to look at anyone or anything, as terror took her. She was lost. She was separated from what she knew, from what she loved.though she could not quite put a pin down on what that was. She was cold. She was in pain. And she wanted nothing more to be home in her hobbit hole by the pleasant fire again. HOBBIT HOLE!? Her mind yelled at her. She was crazy. She was dreaming. Yet it all seemed so real.  
  
Suddenly, a small, rather high pitched, yet oddly familiar voice to her right made her eyes snap open and her lift her head up an inch off the ground. "Daisy?"  
  
"Pip?" Christine heard herself saying without thinking. "Where are you?"  
  
"We are over here, a little away from you," Another familiar voice whispered, this one a little lower "Don't try to move, they will come over here if you do."  
  
"Where are we, what is happening?" Christine found herself asking again.  
  
"We don't know, all I can tell, since you where unconscious as we came here, is we are near a huge forest and these foul creatures are being hunted; we are surrounded right now." The first voice said, a tone in his voice trying to reassure her. It was not succeeding.  
  
"Is it Strider?" Christine found herself asking again. Strider?! What? Her mind yelled at her.  
  
"No. There are too many of them and they are on horses." The second voice said. Daisy (CHRISTINE! Her mind said, angrily) felt her heart sink. Well you should have known he wouldn't come and save you. He went with Mr. Frodo. That is where the real quest lays. She felt herself thinking unwillingly. Then she snapped a hold of herself Mr. Frodo? Strider? What am I thinking? "Just stay calm," the voice came again "and if you can-" but at that moment another kick in her side told her to be quiet again. A soft cry of pain told her that her friend had gotten the same treatment.  
  
Christine lay for what seemed like forever in the cold silence, the pokey rocks digging into her back, listening intently. She soon found that her hearing had become exceptional: she could hear the distant wind blowing the leaves of a forest near by softly and making them dance in a rhythm and movement she knew all too well from her own home. Suddenly more evil voices made her stop listening to the tinkling of the leaves behind her, and listen to them. "They'll wait for the sun curse them!" came the voice from some where above her. "What's old Ugl'uk think he's doing, I should like to know?"  
  
"I daresay you would." Came an especially evil and nasty voice from the darkness behind her, and for some reason Christine knew this was Ugl'uk speaking. The creatures talked for a bit longer, fighting about what to do about the 'Whiteskins' would do to them if they did not do something right then, or if they did something right then. When the argument seemed to have ended, with Ugl'uk winning, everything went quiet again and the only sound was made by the tinkling of the leaves again, and, Christine noticed suddenly, the occasional snort of a horse. It became very dark, a shadow passed over the moon and did not leave, Christine could not see much, save the golden-red of the fires around her and the threatening shadow of pure blackness of what she guessed to be the forest she could hear and the man had spoken of.  
  
A sudden scuffle made Christine look up slightly, no matter how much her muscles refused to let her. It appeared to her (even though she could not see much in the darkness) that something had crept into the band of creatures suddenly and killed many of them. Christine noticed that all the creatures that had been guarding her had gone off the help the battle. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement, and Christine decided it must be the men she had talked to before. "Daisy?" one of them called out softly into the darkness. Before Christine could answer, though, a soft screech of surprise told her something had grabbed her companions. She kept herself quiet, praying silently that her friends where ok (but Christine was not sure why, since she had never met the men in her life and she barely accounted them as friends because they had spoken to each other through the darkness.) She could hear one of the creatures whispering to the two men that it had obviously grabbed. Then she heard one of the men whisper back to the creature, then the other. She caught a few words, something about 'precious' and an odd gurgling sound in one of their throats that sounded oddly like.no. This had nothing to do with Christine's obsession with The Lord of the Rings books. Or did it?  
  
Then quite suddenly, the shadow of the thing that held her friends, disappeared into the darkness, with the shadows of her friends. This made Christine sit straight up. Where had they gone? Now she was truly lost. And she was going to be killed. But before she was killed she would be forced to give away everything she knew about Mr. Frodo and his quest. She would - what! Mr. Fordo?! So this was a Lord of the Rings dream! But it oddly seemed so real.Then quite suddenly, a shriek from far away made Daisy, no Christine, her name was not Daisy it was Christine, listen very closely. Had that been a Hobbit shriek or an Orc shriek? Hobbits? Orcs? What was she thinking? This was getting to far. But try as she might, Christine could not force herself to wake up from the odd place. But she knew she was dreaming. She had to be dreaming. Simply had to. There was a beating of hooves from the direction where the shriek came from, then it died away.  
  
But terribly, the cry of the dieing creature that had taken Christine's friends had alerted the other Orcs (Christine decided that must be what the creatures where, there was no other word for them that she knew) and they soon became aware that the other two captives where gone. Daisy (NO Christine) was left alone with the Orcs. The big Orc called Ugl'uk was knocking off the heads of the others who where assigned to watch the hobbits and had left them. Then he turned to Christine. "Come then, I think Mauh'ur will be here any moment and we will make sure to get you at least to Isenguard." His eyes where pure evil joy and they filled Christine's heart with terror. At that moment, many loud, shrill cries of many more Orcs, told Daisy (CHRISTINE) that Mauh'ur had indeed arrived and was attacking who ever was surrounding them, "The Riders of Rohan" a small voice in the back of her head said. Then Christine remembered. It all came back to her so fast that it scared her: she was with the Orcs and they where gong to Isenguard, Merry and Pippin had just been saved by Grishna'kh, and they would go into the Fangorn Forest and meet Treebeard. But what would happen to her? The book never said anything about a Hobbit named Daisy (a GIRL named CHRISTINE, her mind yelled) with them. But she knew she had to get away. There was no way around it, to save her own life and the purpose of the quest, she had to.  
  
But then Ugl'uk turned to her again and took out his long dagger. He swiftly cut the tight bonds around her ankles and then pulled her up to a standing position by her hair again. "Come on." She was thrown over the shoulders of an especially hairy Orc and it immediately set off at a fast run towards the forest, with at least ten Orcs surrounding it. Ugl'uk was taking no chances that she would be taken. But as they ran closer and closer to the shadow of the Forest, the Riders of Rohan must have seen the crowd of Orcs running towards the Forest, because quite suddenly, most of the Orks around her where falling over in their tracks as they ran. Daisy (Christine her mind said quite sternly) hoped that the arrow that killed her Orc did not kill her as well. But then, the Orc that was carrying her was shot in the chest from the front by a rider who had ridden ahead of the troupe and was shooting most of the Orcs. Christine felt herself fall with the Orc, but even when he had fallen to his knees, he was not dead: Christine tried to pull her bound hands from around the Orcs' neck, but one strong, clawed hand grabbed her lower arm, ripping the fabric from her shirt, as well as her skin in three, long claw marks. She cried out in pain, but then another arrow hit the Orc, this time in the throat and he fell to the ground, truly dead.  
  
Daisy (CHRISTINE!!) pulled her arm free from the dead Orc's awesome grip and started running away from the circle where all the battle was happening, witch was towards the shadow of the forest ahead of her. She figured if she happened to meet any Orcs there, she would loose them in the trees. But right before she was in the sanctuary of the trees, Daisy (Christine's mind refused to argue further) was grabbed by the hood of her cloak by yet another Orc. All her hope was lost in that second that she looked back into the evil eyes of the thing. But then suddenly, an arrow hit that Orc in the back as well, and with a terrible cry, it died. Daisy, pulled herself free from its grasp and ran soundlessly into the forest. She was suddenly bombarded by darkness so full that it made her stop in her tracks, surprised. Even her keen eyes could barely make out more then shadow in this place, and the air was so stuffy it was hard to breath. But one though filled the young Hobbit's exhausted mind (for that's what Christine felt she was now, a young Hobbit) Find Merry and Pippin. And though she would have liked nothing better than to lay down and sleep for hours and hours and wake up in her own hobbit hole, even if she had to be badgered by the Gaffer until the end of time, she forced herself to keep on going. Her only hope was to find the only people she was sure where still alive in the Fellowship she had been with for so many months. She dared not yell, at least not yet: she though the Orcs where still too close and could hear her. Then they would find her again, and she would be back in the same predicament she was in before, but with no hope of escape.  
  
She had to sleep. She was so exhausted that she could not go on one more minute.she had to stop. She could find Merry and Pippin tomorrow.no. She had to keep on going, who knew how long she would sleep, and Merry and Pippin may not have stopped; they would be long gone by morning if she stopped to sleep. And if she slept, an Orc could come across her and capture her again.But no matter how many reasons her brain could come up with not to sleep, her body would not listen.  
  
Daisy tried to force herself to stay awake, but was suddenly falling to the thick layer to old leaves and moss that covered the forest floor in exhaustion. She tried to throw out her hands to stop her fall, but they where bound, and she was simply too tired.  
  
Suddenly she was awake. A twig had snapped nearby, waking her up immediately. A man, looking oddly familiar, dressed all in white with a huge staff stood above her, a knife in his hand raised above her. SARUMAN!! Her mind screeched. She screamed, a terrified, high pitched scream of a child and tried to throw her hands up to shield her face. * * * Christine was suddenly awake and sitting straight up in her bed, covered in a cold sweat and breathing heavily. The odd necklace, and the heavy golden ring she had always worn around her neck for over a year, ever since she had discovered the magic of Lord of the Rings and had been ensnared, bounced off her upper chest twice: the sudden upward movement of her body sending it bouncing against her. She could feel her heart racing under her skin as she got a grip of herself. It was a clear night and the pale light from the moon and stars outside crept into her room, splashing across the one blanket she used in the summer and the messy floor of her bed room.  
  
It was a dream. Just a dream. She told herself firmly. But it had been so real.surely there was a logical explanation for this? Of course! It was because she read too much Lord of the Rings. She was completely obsessed and all her friends had always told her no good could come of it. That was it. With these thoughts in her head, Christine lay back down and forced herself to fall asleep again. But the last thing she remembered thinking was, Why was my name Daisy then?.  
  
*(Author's note: hope you liked it.if you thought there was not enough actual Middle-Earth in it, trust me, there is more coming. Well, review!! I love to hear how I am doing!! Thanx for reading! -Gill) 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2  
  
*(Author's note: ok, the first few paragraphs after the break sound really cheesy, but just keep on reading: trust me, it gets better.) ; )  
  
SO IT WAS DONE; THE GIRL HAD GOTTEN THE DREAM. GALADRIEL COULD FEEL OVER THE OCEANS AND PROTECTIVE BARRIERS OF THE LAND OF THE ELVES, ALL THE WAY INTO THE CHANGED WORLD, THROUGH THE CONNECTION SHE HAD SHARED WITH THE CHILD'S SOUL SHE COULD FEEL THE FEAR THAT THE GIRL FELT AS SHE FELL BACK INTO FORGOTTEN MEMORIES. GALADRIEL PITIED THE GIRL, FOR EVEN THE MEMORY WAS A TERRIFYING ONE AND PERHAPS SHE COULD HAVE USED A HAPPIER ONE FOR THE FIRST OF THE DREAMS, BUT IT WAS DONE NOW. AND SHE WOULD HAVE TO SEE THEM ALL SOMETIME: SHE HAD TO AT LEAST HAVE THOUGHT ABOUT WHAT HAD HAPPENED TO HER BEFORE SHE CAME BACK. BUT GALADRIEL TOLD HERSELF THAT SHE WOULD SEND HER A HAPPIER MEMORY NEXT TIME. IT WOULD NOT BE GOOD TO SEND HER ALL THE DEPRESSING, PAINFUL MEMORIES AT ONCE.BETTER TO SEND HER A MEMORY OF PERHAPS WHEN SHE HAD LIVED WITH HER FATHER IN THE SHIRE BEFORE SHE HAD LEFT WITH HER FRIENDS.  
  
GALADRIEL FELT THE GIRL WAKE UP AND QUICKLY PUT HERSELF INTO THE TRANCE THAT BROUGHT HERSELF TO THE GIRL'S BODY... SHE WAS I A ROOM, LIT ONLY BY THE PALE MOONLIGHT THAT SPLASHED ACROSS THE BED COVER AND A BIT OF THE FLOOR. SHE WAS COVERED IN A COLD SWEAT AND TREMBLING ALL OVER IN FEAR. A HEAVY NECKLACE BUMPED HER UPPER CHEST TWICE AS THE GIRL SAT UP QUICKLY.  
  
Galadriel pulled herself from the trance. Good. The girl had remembered the dream after waking and she would not have to waste time transporting the memory again. The lady stood and looked around the dark room; it was too late to go and se the rest of her plan in action. It would have to wait.  
  
* * *  
  
Aaron Harrison had a swell life. Looking back on the lifetimes he could remember, he was in one of the best ones right now. Save perhaps his first, when all this had started happening, he could barely think of better lifetimes. He was royalty twice, though once he had not come into his full inheritance, nor had barely anyone known who he was until he was over 80.But that was beside the point, in that life he had been more than a normal man: that was the life time that had started everything. The lifetime before the fading time. In that life time he had done so much more than in all his others put together. He had saved the world (in a manner of speaking, it was actually others, but he had played a major role in the protection of the ring bearer.for a time at least.)  
  
He sighed and walked across the huge living room in his house in Seattle Washington, to where his huge windows look out onto the Puget Sound below. He studied the water sparking in the early morning sun closely, then looked out over the water to the place where he knew there was mountains, and rainforests.beauty beyond imagination. A place of his past. The old forest that had been a major landmark in his first life, and the creatures that lived inside had saved his life and many more. But now the Ents where long sleeping and their bodies where simply huge trees that towered above the other, especially covered in moss compared to the other trees in Olympic National Park. Aaron could always tell when he got near a sleeping Ent: he could feel their lingering magic that no other human could quite feel. It would tickle the back of their mind and if they where alert enough to sense it, they would not be able to quite grasp it. It had happened often when Aaron walked with friends in the forest, they would feel this tickling, and ask him if he felt it as well. He would shrug and smile behind their backs. Only his many years in his lifetime before the fading time brought him the ability to know what this was. Or perhaps now that he had read the Lord of the Rings books and he remembered his past it all became easier for him to feel this power.  
  
He was perfectly happy: he was the vice president to a large building company, lived in what he thought the idea place from all his travels around the world in his many different lives, and was engaged, ready and looking forward to a perfectly happy marriage. But something was bothering him today. And today of all days! It was Saturday, Saturday was a happy day to sit at home and rest before the long week to come. But his mind was not at ease. Something was going to happen: he could feel deep inside him; as if one nerve was tingling with anticipation. He paced back from the window and towards his large couch, where he stretched out completely and pressed "power" on the remote. He casually flipped thought the channels, passed the news, the "rugrats", some little kids band called the Wiggles.nothing worth watching was on at 9:30 on a Saturday morning. What to do, what to do? He glanced at the clock as he turned to T.V. off; 10:04. he had the whole day ahead of him, what was he going to do with it? he considered taking a ferry across the Sound to the park, but that would take a good part of the day to get there, leaving him barely any time to do the thing he loved to do there: take his time and enjoy the silence of his memories. He could stay late, but the ferry did not go all night, and he had to be up early to see Grace in the morning. No, today was not the day.  
  
Aaron was leaning his head back against the arm-rest of the leather couch, when suddenly it hit him: he was being called. His eyes shot opened, but then closed again, going into a magic trance. He could not tell who this was from, but he could tell where it was from: the faded lands?! Who was trying to contact him from there? He let himself fall deeper into the trance, opening his mind to who ever was trying to call him.  
  
"Aragorn?" A familiar voice, lost from centuries of other lifetimes to him, rang though his head.  
  
"Lady, what is it?" he asked, wondering why on earth the Lady Galadriel wanted with him.  
  
"The time has come." She said. For a moment Aaron pondered what she meant, then he realized; but no, not yet! It could not possibly be so soon. "Yes. It has come sooner than I expected, and it is time to find her."  
  
"How do you know? What has happened so far?" Aaron asked franticly.  
  
"I do not have the time to tell you now, is it not just enough for you to know that you must find her, as quickly as you can?" The lady asked, impatiently "This could mean the end of the Elves, you must hurry!"  
  
"But where is she? How will I possibly find her?" Aaron asked hopelessly.  
  
"She does not know who she is, but she will not be that hard to find: she will look much like she did when she was in the body of a Halfling, and the same age as when she left, though, as you know from all your life times, there will be obvious changes. But you must find her! This is the fate of the Elves! You must find all the members of the Fellowship currently in human bodies in the changed world, and all the others who where closely tied with the quest. Do you know any of them?"  
  
Aaron felt himself nodding, then remembered the lady could not see him and said "Yes, I am here in Seattle, Pippin is currently a High School Science teacher in Minnesota, Merry is currently living in Thunder Bay Canada, and I have never met him, but Tom (that's Pippin) says they know each other quite well. Are there any others?" he asked. He had never met any of the other past members of the ancient Fellowship in this life, or perhaps.  
  
"Yes, two others that I know for sure, Arwen is in a body somewhere in the Changed world, and young, about the girls age and so is Samwise Gamgee."  
  
Suddenly, Aaron knew. It was so obvious. He should have known. Jamie. His young niece, Jamie from Duluth Minnesota. He had always known she was from the magical world, but never from where. It made so much sense. But did she know? How many people would have had to explain the past to? But of course, since the first movie came out, everyone was bombarded by Lord of the Rings things these days, she may have begun to remember.  
  
"Then you think you may know Arwen?" Galadriel asked, using her mind- reading powers again.  
  
"Yes. I believe I do. But I have never heard of nor seen Sam in this life."  
  
"Then you have one more person to find; Samwise will be a vital person in this quest."  
  
Aaron sighed: this might be harder than he thought. "Are there any other ways that might aid when we look for them?" he asked, hoping that there was just another way to help in the finding of the girl.An then he had to find Samwise.Argh  
  
"Yes, in fact, I've just remembered: she will have a ring. Quite like the Ruling Ring, but there will be obvious differences; I have not seen it though, so I can not say exactly."  
  
"Anything else?" Aaron hoped there was at least one more, obvious thing to help them.  
  
"Yes, one more thing: it will take a good bit of magic that you must call up, and it may be hard, since you have no magic in your current body: you will have to call what is left from past lifetimes deep within you. But what you must do is put yourself in a magical trance and concentrate very hard on finding Daisy. If you have brought up a strong enough trance, your senses should be transported to her body, you will feel, smell, taste and see what she is feeling, smelling, tasting and seeing. In other words, the only ways that show you are not actually her, are that you will not control her body and you will not be able to read her thoughts."  
  
"Alright." Aaron said, thinking hard about what the lady had said, determined to remember what to do.  
  
"This is where I leave you. Hurry, please. Once you find her, you must tell her what really happened, and make her believe, then you will find what you need to do. Oh, and today, at 3:30, go the to Seattle air port, terminal number 34. You will meet someone there who is another vital person in this quest. Fare thee well Aragorn." and the connection was broken. Aaron tried to hold the magic link that held their minds together over all the oceans and magical borders that protected the faded lands there by his mind alone, but since there was so little magic in him, it soon became tiring and he had to let it go. He felt it slip from his mind in a fraction of a second, only to be lost on the winds of the Sound outside.  
  
Then he turned his mind to other things.it was time already?! How many lifetimes had it been now?? Aaron could no longer say, but it had been thousands and thousands of years since the first quest. It was before men began to count time and before the first recordings where lost. It was right before the Elves left for the Grey Havens, and all the magic had slowly gone with them. Aaron had lived so many lifetimes.he had so many different names.so of these lifetimes he could remember, others, he was oblivious to what he had gone through in the past. But this was the lifetime. This, almost perfect one was the lifetime he would have to go through it all again.But then the thought came to him, how was he supposed to do this? How was he going to find one girl that looked sort of like the Daisy Gamgee that he knew thousands and years ago? She could be living any where in the world! She could live in France and not ever speak the same language! She could live in Afghanistan! Then Aaron thought of it.he would look in her body, like Galadriel had told him to, he would surely know what county she lived it.and who knows: someone might even say her name. That would narrow the options down quite a bit. But then they still had to find Sam.he refused his mind to think about that now: he must concentrate on what needed to be done first.  
  
Aaron lay his head back down on the arm-rest of his couch, closing his eyes and forcing himself to go into a magical trance. It was not easy: even when he had been Aragorn, with the little magic and Elfish blood in him, he had had problems calling up magical trances, and now he had to try even harder, for the power lay deep within him, virtually untouchable. But he had to try: he had to know where to start. So as he forced his mind in to a magical trance, he kept the thought Find Daisy.Find Daisy... running though his mind loudly. Suddenly, he felt himself in the trance, with a final shout of FIND DAISY he felt it suddenly: he was there.  
  
He was suddenly in the body of a young girl, probably about fourteen years old, just as she was waking up. The morning was quite cold, mainly due, Aaron noticed, to an opened window in the corner of the room, near the ceiling. The girl had goose-bumps all over her body, yet for some reason Aaron felt they where not completely because of the cold winds: the girl was terrified. But why?  
  
AARON COULD FEEL THE FEAR WITHIN THE GIRL, AS WELL AS THE NEED FOR UNDERSTANDING. "IT WAS JUST A DREAM. JUST A SILLY DREAM THAT HAPPENED TO HAVE CHARACTERS FROM THE LORD OF THE RINGS IN IT ." SHE WHISPERED, TRYING TO CALM HERSELF. THEN GALADRIEL MUST HAVE SENT HER A DREAM OF HER PAST LAST NIGHT. AARON THOUGHT. "BUT IT WAS SO REAL." THE GIRL SAID QUIETLY, TRAILING OFF.  
  
SUDDENLY, AS IF SHE HAD COME TO A DECISION ABOUT SOMETHING, THE GIRL STOOD AND WALKED THROUGH THE ROOM, ALL CHILLS AND WINDS FORGOTTEN, TOWARDS THE HUGE BOOK SHELF ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROOM, NEAR THE WINDOW. SHE STOOD ON TIP-TOES (THOUGH IT WAS BARELY NEEDED, AARON NOTICED, SHE WAS TALL) AND SCANNED THE TOP-MOST SHELF OF THE BOOKSHELF UNTIL SHE FOUND THE BOOK SHE WAS LOOKING FOR. AS SHE HASTILY GLANCED AT ALL THE TITLES OF THE BOOKS, AARON NOTICED SHE WAS A HUGE TOLKIEN FAN; SHE MUST HAVE EVERY ONE OF HIS BOOKS! AARON THOUGHT. WELL THAT COULD MAKE IT EASY FOR US, IF SHE KNOWS MOST OF THE STORY ANYWAY. THEN HE WENT BACK TO PAYING ATTENTION TO WHAT SHE WAS DOING. SHE HAD PULLED OUT A RATHER OLD AND TATTERED COPY OF THE TWO TOWERS (AARON HAD SEEN A MUCH BETTER, HARDCOVER COPY ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SHELF) AND WAS QUICKLY FLIPPING THROUGH PAGES UNTIL SHE FOUND WHAT SHE WAS LOOKING FOR: PAGE 444, UNDER THE CHAPTER "THE URUK-HAI". AARON COULD NOT HELP BUT SHAKE HIS HEAD (THOUGH NOTHING HAPPENED TO THE GIRL, MAYBE IN HIS OWN BODY IN SEATTLE WASHINGTON, BUT NOT HERE, WHERE EVER THIS GIRL WAS): WHY HAD THE LADY CHOSEN THIS MEMORY, FOR AARON KNEW EXACTLY WHICH ONE IT WAS SHE HAD GIVEN HER.SMALL WONDER THE GIRL WAS TERRIFIED. HE SECRETLY HOPED THE LADY WOULD HAVE MORE SENSE NEXT TIME AND WOULD CHOOSE A HAPPIER MEMORY.AND NOT THE LAST ONE, NOT UNTIL THE VERY END, IF AT ALL.  
  
The girl was looking quickly down the page, her eyes skimming over the words, then stopping to read "the night was cold and still" Then "'They'll wait for the sun curse them!." Then (a few pages later) "The cries of Grishn'akh had roused the Orcs. From the yells and screeches that came from the knoll the hobbits guessed that their disappearance had been discovered: Ugl'uk was probably knocking off a few more heads."  
  
The girl, paused, astounded and scared. No, more than scared: terrified. She looked up and out the window to a huge pine tree, but not really looking at it, her eyes just landed there. "Word for word." Aaron distinctly heard her mutter under her breath "Even I don't have that good of a memory." she whispered faintly.  
  
But the connection was fading.she must be far away Aaron thought.and then it was gone.  
  
AARON THREW HIS HEAD BACK AGAINST THE SOFT ARM-REST, BACK IN HIS OWN BODY IN HIS OWN HOUSE. THAT WAS ONE OF THE WEIRDEST THINGS THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO ME, HE COULDN'T HELP BUT THINK. BUT HE HAD LEARNED A FEW THINGS: (1) THE GIRL LIVED IN AMERICA, OR SHE LIVED IN A PLACE WHERE THEY SPOKE ENGLISH AND SHE HAD AN AMERICAN ACCENT, (2) SHE HAD READ THE LORD OF THE RINGS BOOKS BEFORE, AND SHE KNEW THEM WELL, AND SHE ALSO LIKED TOLKIEN'S WORK, BY THE LOOKS OF IT, AND THAT (3) AARON WOULD HAVE TO BUILD UP HIS STRENGTH IN ORDER TO STAY IN HER BODY FOR MORE THAN A FEW MINUTES: IT HAD TAKEN SO MUCH JUST TO GET INTO THE TRANCE, THEN TO HOLD IT.IT WOULD BE HARD.  
  
But now he knew a thing or two.and at least he could get started. But for now he would lay here and take a little nap until 3:30.that magical use had most certainly worn him out.  
  
* * *  
  
Christine woke in the cold. The window of her room had been left opened and a cold wind had seeped its way though the screen. For a second she forgot why she was so scared. For a moment she wondered why the slightest feeling of sweat lingered on her body. For a second she was pretty darn happy, just a bit curious, but then it all came back and she felt her heart sink. At that same moment, she felt as if something new had just entered her body and was sharing it with her. But she only noticed it for a fraction of a second, then it was over and she was herself again, worried and confused.  
  
SUDDENLY, A NEW IDEA CAME TO HER.SHE HAD TO FIND OUT, REALLY.(WELL YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS HERE FOR ABOUT 2 PARAGRAPHS, SO I WILL SPARE YOU THE BURDEN OF READING IT ALL AGAIN AND GET BACK IN WHERE AARON/ARAGORN HAD JUST LEFT HER BODY)."WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?" SHE ASKED, SOFTEST AND FAINTEST OF ALL.  
  
"Christine! Phone!" her older sister, Alex called her from downstairs. "I know your awake, I just heard you running around! Come on; it's Flo."  
  
Christine sighed. "Great." She said under her breath and took off at the run down stairs. Flo never liked to be left waiting, and she had probably been on the phone a full 15 seconds as of now. Flo was Christine's best-not- so-much-anymore-friend. Flo went to a big expensive privet school in the wealthy part of Duluth that Christine's family could never afford, and Christine went to the public school in Two Harbors, the smaller town just north of Duluth. Even since they had gone their separate ways in 7th grade, they had never quite been in close contact and their friendship had just made an awesome crash downwards after that. Before they changed schools they where virtually inseparable (thought they where quite different) but time and new friends had taken their toll on the friendship and now it was slowly but surely falling apart like an old brick, just baby crumples that became huge and soon its completely gone. Currently it was at the stage where the crumples where not anymore small, but not huge enough to kill the brick. Christine took the stairs three at a time then skidded onto the cold tiles of the kitchen in her bare feet and grabbed the phone from her sister's hand, all but forgetting the odd dream for the present.  
  
"Hey." She said into the phone as she sat down and grabbed an apple from the basket on the table. Alex walked by and sniffed her then quickly drew her nose away "Ugg, what where you dreaming about last night; you where talking in your sleep when I came to bed about Pip or Merry or something totally weird like that and you stink from sweat! Take shower!" "Shut up." Christine said away from the receiver to her sister.  
  
"Hey girl!" Flo said back. "What up?"  
  
"Umm, nothing. What are you doing up so early?" everyone that knew Flo knew it was one of her famous traits to stay up much later than any normal person unless they where a graveyard-shift security guard and not to wake up till 3:30 at the very earliest. But a glance at the clock on the microwave told Christine it was only 11:06, and what was very early for Flo.  
  
"My mom woke me up for no apparent reason whatsoever and now she wont let me sleep so I figured I would call my best bud!" Flo was a normally hyper person, but this was a little much, Christine thought.  
  
"Oh, that's great." Christine fought to hide the lie in her voice, she didn't want to talk to Flo at all, and Flo was most certainly not her best bud. Christine had decided to actually make herself known when she went to High School, so she would not limit her best friend to a girl that bossed her around and went to a big privet school that was a 45minute drive away, and that was when traffic was good. She didn't have any best buds at the time, but she certainly knew she was doing better than Flo who had three boyfriends and no close friends that where actually girls. But Christine had decided long ago not to bring this up.  
  
"So, wanna play today?" Of course, Christine thought now that we have not talked in forever you want to become best friends again because you are not off making out to one of your boyfriends; typical.  
  
"Sorry, but I've got plans already with my friend Jen. We are going to the mall together today." Christine thought it was a pretty good lie off the top of her head.  
  
"Great! I'll get my mom to dive me in and we can meet there! Hold on, lemme ask." a pause. Christine crossed her fingers and hoped Flo's mom would say no.A groan. Yes! Christine thought. "Well, never mind my mom said she cant. Sorry."  
  
"Oh that's fine!" Christine tried not to sound too happy. "Well, I gotta run. Talk to you some other time."  
  
"Right. Call me babe." Flo's disappointed voice came back and the click of the receiver told Christine it was alright to be happy again.  
  
"What did she want?" Alex asked from where she was making waffles across the kitchen as Christine put down the phone.  
  
"To go to the mall or something." Christine answered pulling up a stool and throwing the last bit of the core of the apple in the garbage. "You had better give one of those to Me." She pointed at the waffles.  
  
"You just ate an apple!" Alex demanded.  
  
"Ya, well I have a big appetite." Christine answered smugly to her sister who still had some baby fat in the stomach area. Eating was a second nature to Christine, yet she still was as flat as a board.  
  
"Stop stating the obvious." Alex glared back at her sister.  
  
"Waffles!! Waffles!! Waffles!! Waffles!! Are they done yet Alex?" Amy, the youngest of Christine's three siblings ran in to the room, skidding on her stocking feet.  
  
"No. Five more minutes." Alex answered.  
  
"Ok. Call me!!" She ran out of the room again to watch her cartoons, being 5 and still loving them. Christine often joined her for the fun if she woke up early enough of Saturdays, but today she was not in the mood at all, all she wanted to do was be alone and think.  
  
"Go try to wake John up, ask him if he wants a waffle." Alex said.  
  
"Ya, like he will get up at 11 for a waffle." Christine said as she stood. Her fifteen year-old brother was impossible to wake up before 1 in the summer; even if there was an Earthquake, a tornado and a tsunami all at once, he still wouldn't get out of his huge water bed. But at least the trip up and down the stairs would give Christine some time to think and ponder over her strange dream.  
  
* * * Frodo Baggins walked alone across the room he had suddenly found himself in, towards a chair, closely observing everything around him. He felt so small compared to all the big people walking about him, glancing at him, their eyes laughing hysterically at him. Of course he had gotten used to being around all the tall Elves of the Unchanged land centuries ago, but then he had known almost everyone, and no one had pointed at him there and whispered to a friend near by. He quickly moved into a chair in a rather quiet corner. He had a bit of a job getting into the chair and when he was finally settled his short legs where far from touching the ground and he felt oddly like the young boy that sat with his mother a few seats over. But he was not laughing hysterically and pointing at himself. He felt his stomach tie in a knot. What was he doing here?! In the Changed world after so many centuries living quietly with the Elves! There was no one here he knew. No one he could talk to. And it was obvious to him he was an outcast. People where still pointing at him or glancing at him sideways and up from their big dull white pieces of paper covered in a tiny black print Frodo could not read. Suddenly the dry voice of a woman ran though the huge building around him, "Last call for people boarding flight number 63 for New York City." Frodo sat bolt upright, looking around for the person who had a voice so loud. But no one around him had appeared to have just yelled, and it had to have been someone near him, and most certainly the woman had been near him. "I repeat, last call for people boarding flight 63 for New York." The voice echoed thought the huge building. And yet no one had yelled or even made a sign to acknowledge the sound of the voice.  
  
Frodo glanced around him again. How long will I have to wait? He thought. So many strange things where around him. He glanced at the rather uncomfortable chair he was sitting in. It was made of some black material that sounded kind of hollow when he rapped his fist against it. But it was most certainly not wood, like all the chairs from the lands of the Elves where. The legs of the chair where made from some shinny, cold material that reflected the finger that Frodo held up so he could touch it. But the chair was far from the only strange thing in this large place, everything around Fordo, down to the very clothes the big people where wearing was strange, new and quite frankly terrifying for this small hobbit. (But I will save you the pain of explaining all of them to you since you are probably all quite familiar with them, since I'm going to guess you live in the same world as me and you know by now the chair was made of plastic and the legs where made of metal. Anyway, to continue.)  
  
Suddenly, a vaguely familiar voice cut through Mr. Baggins' thoughts and made him look up suddenly. "Frodo?!"  
  
Frodo looked up and saw a man rushing towards him, not looking at all familiar to him, but Frodo guessed that since he was jogging towards him, and he was calling his true name, he must be the man he was looking for. "Frodo?" The man said again, coming closer. Now he was gathering even more odd looks from the crowd around them. Frodo stared at the man jogging towards him uncertainly for a moment more, but the man got close enough and the gray of his eyes reminded Frodo; "Aragorn?" He whispered in shock, just loud enough for himself to hear.  
  
"Oh my goodness! What are you doing here?" the man Fordo had known thousands of years ago said as he approached Frodo "Oh," he added "call me Aaron, it will make people wonder if you call me Aragorn."  
  
Frodo wondered about this for a moment, but all thoughts where quickly dashed from his mind as he answered "Aaron's" question "Well, the lady thought it would be better to send one of us Hobbits rather than an Elf, since we knew the child so much better, and Bilbo is not much better off than the last time you saw him, so she had me come. But I am still not exactly certain what I am supposed to be doing here. The lady said you would explain things to me." he looked up at the man hopefully. "Of course, and you must tell me everything about the distant lands, but not here. We will draw to much attention if we start talking of such things here. Come with me, my car is in the parking lot outside."  
  
Frodo jumped down from the chair he was sitting in, glanced around at all the people glancing at them like they where insane then followed Aaron towards the long halls of the huge building he was in, trying to think of what a "car" and "parking lot" could possibly be. 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3  
  
Christine stayed up as late as she could that night. She did not want to have another terrifying dream, such as she had the night before. But try as she might to stay up, Christine was not a night person, and by 12:09, her eyes hurt just to keep them opened. So, she dragged her feet up the wooden stairs of her house to her bed (Alex was still on the Internet chatting with friends and doing other random things) not even bothering to change her clothes. She was in a deep sleep within seconds.  
  
* * *  
  
Immediately she knew. Right away when she entered the dream, she recognized the feeling and tried to draw herself out of it. But she couldn't. She suddenly realized this dream was different, though: there was a different feeling to this one, not the terrified, skinning, lost feeling of the pervious dream, but a happy, relaxed feeling that she liked and recognized, as if from another life time.  
  
Everything around Daisy (this night her mind gave in right away) was completely dark, but there was a little light that was able to sneak though the thick canopy of the forest from the moon and starts. This pale light illuminated some details and Daisy's keen eyes where able to pick them up quite easily. She was following a figure before her that obviously knew where he or she (something told Christine it was a he) was going. There was barely anything more to see around them other than the wild forest that pressed in close around them. Daisy found herself gripping the cold metal hilt of what she guessed was a sword behind her tightly, as if she expected attack. Suddenly she spoke up "Are we almost there? My father is surely already quite angry enough with me and I don't need staying out too late to be added to his list of reasons to be mad." Daisy spoke up quickly. It was again quite against Christine's will, she was just talking almost with out thinking.  
  
THE FIGURE TURNED AROUND AND THOUGH SHE COULD NOT SEE HIS FACE CLEARLY BECAUSE OF THE DIM MOONLIGHT, SHE COULD TELL HE WAS SMILING. "DON'T WORRY DAISY, YOU WILL BE HOME IN GOOD TIME." IT WAS ONE OF THE VOICES SHE REMEMBERED FROM THE DREAM SHE HAD THE NIGHT BEFORE.  
  
"I'm not worried." Daisy said in her defense, "Its my father that's going to be worried." The figure turned around again and started walking. In an after thought Daisy added "You aren't taking me swimming again are you Pip, because no matter how much I like that, I fear you will truly drive my father mad with worry if I come home shivering and wet again."  
  
The figure before her (Pip) laughed. "No, don't worry, I learned last time." Daisy smiled. Her father could overreact sometimes, and that time had been no exception.  
  
"So where are you taking me?" She asked. "You have been there before, but I happened upon it a few days ago and I thought you may want to see the place you found." Daisy chose against asking him where exactly this place was, she had discovered so many places in the Shire only moon and sunlight had seen for perhaps hundreds of years, she couldn't imagine witch one her friend was talking about now.  
  
THEY WALKED IN SILENCE FOR A WHILE LONGER, THE ONLY SOUNDS AROUND THEM WHERE THEIR CLOAKS SOFTLY RUSTLING IN THE COOL SUMMER NIGHT AIR AND THE NORMAL SOUNDS A FOREST MADE. QUITE SUDDENLY, THE FOREST AROUND THEM GAVE WAY AND THEY STOOD IN A HUGE MEADOW, THE GRASS REACHED UP TO THEIR WAITS, A FEW TREES CREATING HUGE SHADOWS LIKE LONG FINGERS REACHING ACROSS THE GRASS DOTTED THE ALMOST EMPTINESS FULL OF EVERYTHING. THE MOONLIGHT MADE EVERYTHING SHINE IN A SOFT LIGHT THAT AMAZED DAISY, THIS PLACE HAD SEEMED SO IRRELEVANT AND BORING COMPARED TO OTHER THINGS SHE HAD SEEN IN THE SHIRE.  
  
"WOW." WAS ALL SHE COULD SAY.  
  
"Race you across." The man next to her said quickly, a grin spreading across his face. Then he took off across the meadow.  
  
Daisy paused for a moment then smiled and hitched up her dress and ran after him. The silence was only broken by their bodies slipping through the long grass, making it softly rustle and their bare feet dully padding on the ground. Daisy quickly gained on him, with her unnaturally long legs and despite his lead. She was easily the first to reach the far end of the meadow by a fair lead. "Why," She said to the man as he panted to a stop next to her "Peregrin Took, do you keep on challenging me to races, as I obviously am a better runner than you?"  
  
"Because I know one day I will catch you off your guard and beat you." He answered, smiling brightly.  
  
Daisy laughed out loud. "I wait to see the day." She said. Then she turned to look at the woods. A threatening feeling came from within, perhaps it was that everything within was completely dark, but Daisy did not like the feeling of the darkness of the woods. She found herself fingering the hilt of her sword again that hung from her belt under the back of her gray-green cloak. "Let's go towards the middle of the meadow, I don't like the darkness of the woods." She said in little more than a whisper.  
  
Pippin smiled evilly "Ok." He said, "But why?"  
  
"I just told you, I don't like how dark it is." Daisy said as she took a few steps away from the darkness, not liking the smile on his face at all.  
  
"Your afraid of the dark!" Pippin screeched "Fearless Daisy Gamgee is afraid of the dark!" he said, running after her.  
  
"Am not!" Daisy said, stomping her foot and putting her hands on her hips. But she could not wipe the smile off her face. Of course she was afraid of the dark, the night was the best time to go wandering, and Pippin knew that well. "Nor am I fearless!" she added as an after thought.  
  
"Oh, right, your 'unnatural'. I forgot." Pippin said, dragging out the word "unnatural".  
  
"Now you don't go repeating anything the old Gaffer says!" Daisy said, jogging to catch up with her friend who was walking quickly across the meadow ahead of her.  
  
"Right. I'll remember that." He said, smiling. "And your afraid of the dark!" he said in a sing-song voice that rang through the silence around them.  
  
"If you don't stop that Pippin, I just might have the draw my sword on you!" Daisy said in a fake warning voice.  
  
"Oh, right." Pippin said, giving a fake gasp and putting on a fake scared face. "That sword you always speak of, yet no one has ever seen."  
  
"You mean this sword?" Daisy said pulling the blade from its sheath, the metal shining brightly as it caught the moonlight. She pointed it directly at her friends neck, jokingly, a smile she knew reeked of pure evil and enjoyment spread across her face. Pippin stopped in his tracks staring wide- eyed at the sword as if he had never seen one before (actually it was possible it was the first one he had seen, living in the shire his whole life.)  
  
"Don't point that thing at me!" He said, his voice full of true fear.  
  
Daisy laughed. "Don't worry, I wouldn't hurt you! I have been practicing and I am skilled with this thing." She said, flicking it lightly in the air and grabbing it again, this time in a more comfortable position for her hand.  
  
"Where did you get that thing anyway?!"  
  
"An Elf." Daisy answered simply, slipping the sword back in its well-made sheath and sitting down on the grass, slightly wet from the dew that had started to build up.  
  
"And let me guess," Pippin said, seeming much more relaxed, now that the sword was out of sight, and sitting down on the ground next to her. "You walked all the way to Rivendell to meet an Elf and ask them for a nice shiny sword?"  
  
"Yes. That is exactly what I did. That's why I was gone for three months a year ago." Daisy said sarcastically. "No, of course not. I was walking though the woods alone and met a group. They where one of the first that left for the Havens.now there are so many more. I stayed with them for a few hours, they gave me some very good food, and some good tales. But when it was time for them to move on, one took me aside. He had been watching me closely the whole time and he had suddenly seemed to have come to a decision." Daisy was no longer talking to her friend in the moonlit meadow, she was in the woods at twilight, a tall, fair Elf had taken her aside and was making sure none of his companions where looking at them. "He took me aside and said-" Daisy suddenly remembered what he had said and brought herself back to the meadow, where she was telling the story, suddenly careful not to tell too much. "-he gave the sword, and said he would not need it anymore, as he was so close to a place where there would be no need of such things." Daisy looked at her friend and smiled.  
  
"And that was it?" Pippin asked.  
  
"Yep. Then they left and I never saw them again, though I sometimes see Elves in the forest." She said quickly, finding herself fingering the pendent she wore around her neck.  
  
"You don't tell you father do you, I think it might kill him if you knew Elves and had gifts from them and he didn't." Pippin said laughing.  
  
Daisy laughed too. "No. I've never told him. I think your right." Then they where silent for a time. In the silence, Daisy went back to the forest, she was with the Elf again. He smiled down on her and placed a hand on her shoulder "You are pure of heart, child, and you have much ahead of you. Here," he handed her the sword "It is of Elfish making and it will let no harm come to you if you know how to use it. Learn. And this is for you as well," he then took a necklace off his own neck and placed it around hers. It was a large dim orange jewel that lay in a net of gold. As it left the neck of it's former owner it glowed slightly, but nothing more had it ever done of the kind when Daisy had worn it. No one but herself had ever seen it, as she wore it under her shirt and never took it off. "You have much to do child," the Elf had continued "in this life and in others. Never lose these gifts, they will forever help you. Namarie, (a.n, did I spell that right? I cant spell in Elfish) Elf friend from now forth. Always remember, and tell no one too much." Then the Elves where gone as quickly as they had come, and Daisy was left in the growing moonlight to think.  
  
"Daisy!" Pippin was talking to her again. She was back in the moonlit meadow sitting next to her friend. "Are you ok?"  
  
"Yes." She said defensively, blinking and turning to look at him.  
  
"Alright." He said and looked back up into the star lit heavens. Daisy turned her head and looked up at the sky above them. Directly above it was clear and bright, as if the starts and moon where shining with all their might to light the Earth, but a glance Northward told her that it would not be so for long, many dark clouds where moving quickly their way, and the suddenly strong wind smelled of rain. But Daisy was not afraid of getting wet and she was not ready to leave, so she didn't mention it to Pippin. But the clouds moved in quickly. Soon they had covered the moon and stars and everything was quite dark, even for the keen Hobbit eyes of Daisy (Hobbit eyes? Christine's mind cut in suddenly) could not see very much. But they barely noticed: they where talking and laughing again.  
  
Suddenly, Daisy felt something. It was a mere feeling, as if something was watching her from the darkness she had moved away from. She snapped her head up, and looked every direction into the darkness of the woods, as if she hoped to see her other friend Merry come out of the woods, laughing at them, but no one came. And the feeling lingered.  
  
"What is it?" Pippin asked beside her, looking around as well.  
  
"Can you feel it?" Daisy whispered still looking around.  
  
"What exactly am I supposed to be feeling?" Pippin asked, looking over at her, trying to meet her eyes.  
  
"There's something watching us, or something like that." Daisy trailed off and slowly drew her sword as thunder rumbled softly over head, another sign of the coming rain.  
  
"Put that thing away will you? If you don't kill me, you will kill your self!" Pippin cried, pointing at her sword again.  
  
"Will you shut up?" Daisy snapped turning to glare at him. "Fine." Pippin said, sitting down on the ground and crossing him arms like a child.  
  
"Hush." Daisy said, barely in a whisper. "Its getting closer." And indeed the feeling was growing with every second they stood (and sat) there in the deep silence only broken by the sound of the wind cutting swiftly thought the trees.  
  
Quite suddenly, everything around them was lit up with a sudden bright light that lit every corner of the woods for a split second then it was gone. The lightning was followed by an earsplitting crack of thunder and suddenly, the clouds burst and huge drops of rain fell from the sky, soaking the tiny Hobbits in seconds.  
  
"This is what was getting closer?" Pippin yelled over the sound of the rain and the wind running through the trees.  
  
"Oh be quiet!" Daisy yelled back, laughing and dropping the sword back into the sheath. She was no longer afraid of someone watching them, the lightning would have shown any person watching in the darkness, and Daisy had seen no such person or thing watching. And the feeling had suddenly vanished when the rain had come. Daisy told herself it had been the feeling of rain she had felt, and it had been stupid anyway to worry about such things, she was in the Shire: nothing exciting ever happened there. "Listen Pip," she continued "I've got to go though, it will take a bit to get back home and my father will be hysterical because I was out in the rain."  
  
"Fine you leave me here, all alone!" Pippin shouted as she ran off towards the darkness of the way they came, her cloak flying backwards as she ran, making her shirt and skirt wetter than they where before. She turned and waved before she reached the darkness of the forest but she doubted he saw her, he was staring up into the rain, laughing. Then she was swallowed by the darkness. Daisy ran through the forest for a time, then she was on the road going into Hobbiton and she slowed to a walk. The road was virtually deserted, save an elderly Hobbit man on an old pony cart, half sleeping. Daisy doubted he noticed her when she waved and said "Goodnight sir!" He grunted and looked up then flicked the reins of the cart and brought the pony to a slow steady trot. She laughed softly and shook her head, then turned towards Hobbiton. Within ten minutes of walking she was entering the outskirts of the town. The Hobbit holes where becoming more numerous around her, the lines of trees of the sides of the road shaded her, but barely where able to keep the huge drops of rain that where still huge from reaching her. She entered the heart of the familiar town that she loved so much and was pulling her hood up in a vain attempt to stop the rain from hitting her face, hopping her father would not be so angry with her if she looked fairly dry. But pulling her hood up simply made the puddle of water that had formed in her hood fell onto her head. She laughed silently as she turned down the street that lead to Bangshot Row.  
  
As she passed the Ivy Bush tavern she heard the sound of people talking, laughing and singing within, and she even thought she heard the sound of a fiddle strike up as she passed, all dulled by the thick dirt walls of the hill around. As she neared The Hill the rain was beginning to subside to a light drizzle then to a mist she could barely feel. She ran up the last bit of the hill, then turned down a short walkway off the road to a nice little hobbit hole, as she opened the door she glanced at the brass number "3" in the center, shinning slightly in the moonlight that was breaking thought the now thin clouds.  
  
The instant she was inside the smell of good food met her nose and she paused in the doorway to take in the smell. "Daisy?!" A voice called from within. "Is that you?"  
  
"Yes. Its me." Daisy sighed, taking off her cloak and hiding her sword behind the umbrella stand. "I'm home."  
  
Her father appeared in the door to the kitchen, looking terrified and smiling. "Oh thank god. I was getting worried."  
  
"Obviously not that worried if you didn't go out looking for me." She said, walking into the kitchen.  
  
"Where you swimming again?" he asked her following her.  
  
"No."  
  
"Then why are you all wet?"  
  
"I don't know if you noticed, but it was just raining." Daisy pointed out sticking her nose in a pot of stew still warm on the dieing fire in the kitchen hearth. "Can I have some of this?" she asked, pointing her thumb into the pot, turning to her father.  
  
"You missed supper." Her father said, sitting down across from the old man snoring slightly in a chair by the fire.  
  
"Because I was out. And you said I could go out!" Daisy snapped.  
  
"Not this late!" her father said leaning back in his chair, obviously annoyed.  
  
"Well I'm sorry that Pip wanted to show me something at night." Daisy said as she ladled some of the warm soup into a wooden bowl then standing close to the almost dead, yet still quite warm, fire in a vain attempt to dry off her clothes.  
  
"And you where caught out in the rain and-"He paused to let what his daughter had said set into his mind. "You where out with Pippin again?" Her father asked snapping his head up, his eyes wide with surprise.  
  
"OH my goodness. We are friends." Daisy cried setting down the bowl on the table and glaring at her father.  
  
The clatter of the bowl on the table had woken the Gaffer (who was getting on in his years) with a start. "Talking about that Took boy?" he asked groggily, "Both him and that Brandybuck are trouble, both of um, unnatural. But cant do much harm for this girl." He pointed at Daisy with his thumb. He was growing a little deaf in the ears and thought she could not hear him talking about her and her only friends. "She's an odd one, that girl of yours, Sam." He shook his head "If I've said it once I've said it ten thousand times: that is an odd child."  
  
"I love you too gaffer." Daisy leaned over him and kissed the growing bald spot on his head.  
  
He shook his head in surprise and looked up at her "Oh, hello Daisy, didn't know you where home. Why are you all wet?"  
  
"That doesn't matter!" her father snapped, getting angry. "I just think they are a bad influence on you Daisy, that's all."  
  
"Well then you think that. Ok?" Daisy said simply "I'm putting on some dry clothes and going to bed." She said and turned.  
  
Her father sighed, quite audibly. "You didn't finish your dinner." He said behind her closed bedroom door.  
  
"That's ok, I'm not hungry anymore." Daisy said as she pulled off her wet vest and shirt.  
  
"What have I told you?" She heard the Gaffer strike up again "That is an odd girl. Her hair isn't the right color! She isn't the right weight! She likes swimming and climbing trees! It all comes from her mother, it does."  
  
"Thank you, Gaffer, I know." Her father said. Daisy heard the scrape of a chair against the tiles of the floor witch told her that her father was again sitting down. She smiled and laughed silently as she pulled on a nightgown and climbed into the warmth of the quilts on her bed. The last thing she remembered before she fell asleep was looking out the small round window at the sky, watching the clouds pass in the brisk wind.  
  
* * *  
  
Christine woke suddenly. She did not sit up straight tonight, nor was she covered in a cold sweat and shaking. She was in her room, Alex was snoring softly in the bed next to her, there was rain patting softly against the window of her room and otherwise everything in the house was silent. She felt herself fingering the pendent she had always worn as she thought about the dream. It was the same pendent the Elf had given her in the memory she had felt in the dream. A large dimly orange jewel set in a web of gold. She had worn it her whole life. She had no idea where she had gotten it, only that she never took it off. It was kind of a security thing, if she took it off, her stomach sunk and twisted and turned and she wanted to get it back before something horrible happened. But her mind did not stay on such things. The dream. Though it had not been as frightening as the night before, it had been closely the same: especially when it came to how real it felt. She had felt at home there. Much more at home then she felt here in this three story house that she had lived in her whole life. And it was so real. It was as if she was reliving a memory vividly. It scared her. She decided never to tell anyone about these weird things she was reading about. It would be too weird.  
  
Suddenly she noticed something else. It was as if that dream had stirred up others in her head. She was suddenly going through the day when she had learned to swim. She was a small child and her mother was dieing. But these where hazy, details only falling into place when she thought very hard about them. Then other things came. Terrible things. She was being beaten. She was being killed. She quickly banished thoughts from her head and, trying to forget her dream, she fell asleep again, absent mindedly holding her pendent. 


End file.
